


This is no ordinary fire!

by yankeetooter



Category: Chernobyl (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Cooking, Discrimination, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, just a bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:41:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24313699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yankeetooter/pseuds/yankeetooter
Summary: Valery gets to sample some of Boris' cooking.  Hilarity and some serious talk about biases ensues.
Relationships: Valery Legasov/Boris Shcherbina
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	This is no ordinary fire!

**Author's Note:**

> I know the title isn't a direct quote from the show, so forgive my artistic liberty. Also, apparently there aren't any really spicy Ukrainian foods, so I had to take what I could find and tweak it. Enjoy!

Valery entered the apartment he and Boris shared, a wave of delicious aromas hitting him as soon as he walked through the door. Boris must be cooking! 

_Oh, thank goodness!_

Valery's efforts at the culinary arts were still mediocre at best, despite Boris' best efforts to teach him. 

_But_ _we'll eat good tonight!_

The next moment Boris greeted him with a most welcome embrace. "I have a surprise for you, Valera! Tonight I'll be cooking you some Ukrainian food! Straight from my dear babushka's recipes!"

Valery blinked twice. "Boris? I didn't know you were Ukrainian!"

Boris tensed up a bit. He knew many Russians looked down on Ukrainians. Surely, Valery wouldn't feel that way, would he? "Does that bother you, Valera?"

Valery looked puzzled. "No, of course not! Why would that bother me, Boris?"

"Come, sit down, Valery." And Boris pulled Valery into the kitchen where the savory smells of the food were ten times as enticing from out in the vestibule.

Valery, distracted by the food, which was making him salivate, headed for the stove to see what was cooking. Boris pulled him away. "It's not ready yet," he chuckled. "Come on, I want to talk. This is important."

Valery forgot his hunger and focused on Boris. What was bothering him? He nodded at Boris to continue.

"Valera, does anyone from Ukraine work at Kurchatov?"

Valery screwed up his face in thought. "I think there is one professor, yes, that's right."

"Why only one, Valery? And how is he treated?"

Valery could only look at Boris, mystified by his question. "I don't know. I assume others hadn't applied. Maybe they prefer to work closer to home? As to how the man is treated, I never saw anything being done to wrong him."

Boris nodded, somewhat satisfied, then stopped himself. "Valery, just how much did you interact with this man?"

Valery had to concede the point. "Okay, so very little. But I mostly kept to myself. I didn't really come down to the canteen to eat, just to pick up my food and take it up to my office." 

_Of course, Valery, that is, when you bothered to eat at all._

"Come to think of it, I did see him sitting by himself a lot, but I figured he preferred to read like I would...oh! Do you mean the others didn't make him feel welcome?"

"It's quite possible, Valery. Ukrainians are often looked down on by Russians. It was quite difficult for me to rise through the ranks myself."

Valery reached out and touched Boris' hand. "I don't understand at all, Boris! You are a wonderful person! Besides which, why would anyone look down on a fellow Soviet? Or anyone for that matter, just because they were different?" Flashbacks of being bullied in school came back to Valery. He had been different, and the other students had let him know it. _Oh!_

Boris smiled gently at him, enclosing Valery's hand in his two large ones. "I suspect we all do it, Valera. Only most of us don't mean to." He was interrupted by Valery barking a laugh. "What?"

"But not you, Boris, right? I can't imagine...." Valery was silenced by Boris' finger on his lips.

"Valera, I once thought all scientists were stuck-up know-it-all's who enjoyed making everyone else feel stupid. I hated them, and wanted nothing to do with them...and then I met you."

Valery blushed. "Well, now, that's different..."

"Is it?" Boris challenged. "And how did you used to feel about apparatchiks?"

Now Valery put his head down, abashed at the memory of how he had looked down at the career party men for most of his life. But then Boris had come along, and he was nothing like Valery had expected. He stood and started pacing. He hated to think that he had done that very thing he'd been denying a few moments ago.

Boris walked over to Valery and took him in his arms. "Valery, I didn't mean to open old wounds. I simply wanted to make a point. And you know, since I met you, I have a new appreciation for scientists. They can figure out things the rest of us can't. Where would we be with Chernobyl if it weren't for you? Still trying to put the fire out with water? Searching the world over for robots that could clear the roof, even though they don't exist? I have only the deepest admiration for scientists now!"

Valery nodded, then said deprecatingly, "Well, then I don't see why you stick with me, Boris? There are plenty of scientists who aren't awkward, chubby, bumbling fools..." His breath was knocked out of him by Boris abruptly pinning him up against the kitchen wall. 

"Now you listen, Valera, and you listen well! I don't care about any other scientist! I think highly of what they do, but there isn't another man, scientist or no, who could turn my head like you do! I love you just the way you are, Valera! I love all of your awkwardness, everything! And..." and here Boris placed one hand on Valery's belly and reached around with the other to grab his bum, "all of this as well! Please don't ever think that I could want someone else!"

Valery went to protest and was stifled as Boris' mouth collided with his. He sighed and relaxed as Boris showed him definitively (and not for the last time) how much he wanted him, the man's large hands squeezing and caressing Valery's ample belly. 

__________________________________

Old Ukrainian recipes might have had to wait for another day if the lid of the pot on the stove hadn't started lifting up and coming down with a muffled bang in response to the boiling soup inside. Unable to ignore the sound any longer, Boris pulled away reluctantly and went to get their dinner.

Taking a moment to get himself focused on the more mundane things in life, Valery suddenly remembered that he was still hungry. "Ooh, Boris, what did you make?" he asked, practically skipping over to the stove to spy on Boris' creation.

Laughing, Boris kept Valery at arm's length. "The soup is solyanka and the bread is called pampushka." Boris turned down the soup so it wouldn't boil over and then produced a tray of lovely baked bread from the oven.

Valery was trying to sample the soup even as Boris laughingly pushed him away again. "What? I want to try some!"

"Sit, Valerka! This soup comes with a warning!"

Properly cowed by Boris' words, Valery obediently plopped in a chair, his impatience still evident as he watched Boris' every move. "A warning, Borja?"

Boris carefully placed the hot bread in a basket, then began ladling out the soup. "Yes, a warning," he said as he sat Valery's bowl down in front of him. "You see, solyanka is normally a little spicy and also a bit sour. But my grandfather never liked the sour taste of it. But he did like his food to have a bit of a kick to it. So my grandmother began making it much spicier than the typical solyanka, and that's how she taught my mother to make it as well."

Valery was trying to listen, he really was. But the aroma of the soup was tempting him. There was beef and potatoes and...mushrooms! His favorite! In his efforts to wait, he barely registered what Boris was saying. _How long was Boris going to talk before they ate, anyway?_

"...so we all got used to eating it much spicier, and I actually don't know how to make it any other way. In fact, I prefer it this way. I tried the traditional recipe once at a restaurant but found that I didn't really care for it." 

_Of course, Boris...but I'm hungry!_

"...so you must take small spoonfuls at a time, and eat plenty of the pampushka to cut the spice..." Boris glanced over and gasped.

Valery had run out of patience. Boris would tell his life story while their food got cold! So he spooned a huge portion of soup into his mouth...and his mouth was on fire! Grabbing up his glass of water, he downed it in three seconds flat. But that only made it worse! In fact, the water seemed to make the fire in his mouth travel down his throat.

Boris' vodka was next to go, but that didn't help either. Then the whole pitcher of iced water on the table, but no good - nothing quenched the fire! Valery jumped up and began running around the kitchen, desperate to get the fiery taste out of his mouth. Boris, meanwhile, kept trying to tell him something, but Valery could only focus on the raging inferno in his mouth.

Finally, in a desperate attempt to get through to Valery, Boris wrapped him in his arms and carried him to one of the kitchen chairs, sitting him down firmly. When Valery tried to jump up again, Boris' arm wrapped around his waist, his hand clasping the other side of the chair. Valery sat helplessly kicking his legs, immobilized no less than if Boris had put a seat belt on him. He was yelling, "Boris! Let me up! I need more water! Boris!"

Boris ignored him, grabbing some of the bread. He had to wait until Valery opened his mouth again, then placed some of the bread in his mouth, entreating him to eat. His gentle voice finally seemed to reach Valery who obligingly ate the piece of bread, then blinked in surprise.

"That actually helped, Boris! But I think I need more. Please?"

So Boris fed him more bread, piece by piece, while slowly the fire in Valery's mouth subsided. He chuckled. "You see, Valera, this is no ordinary fire. You can't use water to put it out!"

Valery smiled ruefully. "I see that now, Boris. But could I have some more 'sand and boron', please?"

Later, laying in Boris' arms, Valery sighed. "I guess I should have listened to you Borja! But I was so hungry!"

"Yes, you were, Valera! But next time leave the things to me that you know nothing about!" Boris' lips began playfully nibbling at Valery's neck, who giggled in response and wriggled to get away.

Boris playfully held him down and pulled the quilt over the both of them. "And now, Valera, I need you to help me with this fire!"

The End


End file.
